Life Lessons Month of February: Blog 4- Letters from Mom & Mimi

Ellie… this has been some winter so far!  Yes in the beginning it was beautiful and Christmas card perfect, but I am no longer ooooooooing and ahhhhhhing over the at-one-time lovely snowfall and freezing temperatures!  At the rate it has been snowing, we will be lucky to dig ourselves out by May! 

I would like to yell out “Enough already!”… But we still have March to contend with and I certainly don’t want to jinx the weather whereas another foot or two of snow may appear.   I think this cold spell has already validated the authenticity of the phrase ‘Going stir crazy’!!!!  Hmmmm… so what to do about it?  I know.  Write a blog entry!

Life Lesson Learned #53:  Bring fun and creativity into those uncooperative winter-blues months!

Ellie… I know of a great way to lighten everyone’s moods during these harsh winter months.   If you are not taking advantage of skiing, sledding or building snowmen, then it is best to find fun things to do inside that will take your mind off the bitter cold and also the shoveling schedule.  I believe if you create an event involving friends, you can help melt away the doldrums of winter and replace each spirit with the warmth of fun and laughter.  Yep El, my creativity during this teeth-chattering time of year led me to host another Murder Mystery Tea Party and this time my guests were all teachers!  

Some might think it is an awful lot of prep work, but I find the process delightful!  The best part is matching my guests’ personalities with the available fictitious characters as it can be a bit challenging, but on the day when the drama unfolds I am never disappointed!  Your Mommy and I were familiar with this particular Mystery Tea Party as we used it for play last year on Aunt Sammy’s birthday and boy oh boy was it ever a great time!  So this time we took on new roles and gave my teacher friends all the rest.  And you know what Ellie?  As fun as it was this time around, it was also amazing at how differently this group of people played out their characters.  So yes, the company was great, the tea and food were scrumptious and the flow of conversation was hilarious!  

Rachel and Poppy split their babysitting duties of you and Will in half, so I was grateful that Poppy didn’t bring you over to join us until the end when we were all just sitting around and catching up on each others ‘real life’ events (at almost 4 years of age, unfamiliar adults can still at times overwhelm you, so we try not to put you in those situations if we can).  Anyway, after everyone left Ellie, you had a brilliant brainstorm to have another tea party with Poppy, Mommy, and me only this time we used ‘your’ tea set.  I realized after I boiled the water, added the teabags and steeped the tea for a bit that the only reason why you were so interested in creating another mini tea time was that I had changed up my regular sugar bowl, which housed granulated sugar, and replaced it with a bowl full of sugar cubes.  Apparently you had been eyeing up those sugar cubes since the moment you walked into the dining room!  Your comment was, “Ohhhhhh… I LOVE this kind of sugar!” and then you quickly plunked about 8 sugar cubes into the tea making it very, very, very sweet!  

You then added some milk, gave it a quick stir and then allowed me to pour your tea concoction into your little pink teapot.  Once that was done, you again took over and poured the tea from your little pink and turquoise teapot into 4 little matching teacups.  

Then, with everyone’s pinkie extended outward, we all lifted our teacups and sipped your tasty tea!  When the flavorsome liquid was completely gone, (about 10 minutes tops) you were finished with the tea party and ready to head to another party (your friend Tucker’s first birthday).  El, when you are done, you are done!  But no matter, it was still a great way to have fun inside when all you want to do is get outside but can’t.  Supposedly another “polar vortex” (and before I continue on, where in the world did those 2 words come from???  Polar Vortex???  Are they kidding us???  Up until this year we always called it a “cold front”!  To me Polar Vortex sounds like a blast of cold air being forced into an extra small spandex container that is on the brink of exploding!  Actually, I think the weather people are just trying to ‘snowball’ us into thinking something new is happening within the climate patterns so we all stop whining about the excess of cold fronts!)  Sorry El, I really went off course.  OK, back on track.  What I began to write was that another ‘cold front’ is supposedly arriving (uninvited of course) at the end of the week.  So again, what to do, what to do???  Yep, you guessed it… another Murder Mystery Party but this time with a twist.  You see your Aunt Sammy’s sisters, mom, and aunts are coming to visit next weekend.  And since the weather isn’t going to be so great, I suggested that we have an evening wine/appetizer mystery party.  Of course Aunt Sammy loved the idea and added a few extra girlfriends to the list so Ellie, we will be hosting a Beauty Queen Murder Mystery Pageant!  Because her family is such a hoot, we are guaranteed to have the absolute best time ever!  Can you imagine the drama 15 beauty queen contestants will create under one roof?  Since the party won’t be taking place until after this blog entry goes to print, I will have to catch you up on the evening’s events at a later date.

So till then Ellie, I guess the lesson learned is to make the best of the winter doldrums by having fun, fun, fun!  Because before you know it, spring will arrive and with it will come freshness, color and rebirth.   And the cold months will soon be forgotten… well, that is until next year!

I love you my little sugar cube!

Mimi